Three in 10 former North Korean women who resettled in South Korea after defecting from their home country suffer depression, a government survey showed Tuesday.
According to the survey the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family conducted on 140 female North Korea defectors ranging in age from their 20s to 50s, about 26.4 percent or 37 of them suffer psychological conditions suspected to be depression.
The rate of depression among South Korean adults tallied by Seoul's health and welfare ministry is 6.7 percent, but no breakdown for women alone was available.
In the latest survey, the ratio of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among female defectors was 57.6 percent while 45.7 percent said they have considered or attempted suicide.
About 70 percent of respondents said they have chronic illnesses such as stomach problems, arthritis and neuralgia, indicating the defectors are in fragile physical condition as well.
The women's health problems were attributed to them often being exposed to the danger of sexual violation in the process of coming to South Korea through third countries after fleeing their homeland.
About 14.3 percent of the respondents said they experienced sexual assault or molestation while in North Korea.
Nearly 18 percent and 12 percent, respectively, said they were victimized in the process of defecting through a third country or after resettling in South Korea.
Those rates are far above the average of 4.7 percent of South Korean women who say they have experienced sexual violence.
"Female defectors constantly experience violence not only in the process of defecting from North Korea through a third country but after coming to South Korea, which is a key obstacle to the women's efforts to stand on their own feet," Kim Jae-yeop, chief of the Yonsei University's Graduate School of Social Welfare that commissioned the government survey, said in a report on the findings. "The government needs to tailor measures to support these women's self-reliance, considering the features of their damage from violence."
Korea is home to some 25,000 North Korea defectors with 77 percent of them women, according to the latest figure from the Unification Ministry in charge of North Korea policy. (Yonhap)